Shades of DM-Aristocracy, this map pleases the eye but the whole doesn’t add up to its potential. Lovely visuals based on the now famous static meshes from DM-Aristocracy abound but the gameplay doesn’t hold up to the same quality.

AWE 2.0

The lighting is good overall. There is some nice shadow work and the color palette is expertly chosen to complement the textures and meshes. When looking at the larger picture, however, the lighting is a little too ambient throughout the map. Every section is lit pretty much the same with the only variation occurring in the shadows dotted through the map.The textures are well chosen and well placed but there are plenty of misalignments. Nothing that jumps out at you during play but if you look for them, they’re there. Some of the textures are custom, like the meshes, and the two really play off each other and complement the other very well. One other item is that the skybox is static. Panning clouds or something active in it would really have rounded out the feel more. The textures on the stairs could have used a little more work as both the horizontal and vertical portions share the same texture causing a little bit if ‘blending’ to the geometry.The architecture is simplistic overall but, again, complement the theme. Mostly large areas the boundaries of which are used to display the meshes there are a few smaller corridor areas but they all draw together to create the Aristocracy look the author was searching for – and found.Despite the somewhat ambient lighting and misaligned textures, the map comes together well and gives us the feel of an old European village, UT-style. Unlike Aristocracy, however, the map doesn’t hit quite the sweet-spot it did.

BUILD 2.5

The build is solid overall. There wer no HOMS and all the brushes were aligned and placed perfectly. Surprising, there is no zoning whatsoever. Zone count: 2. 1 for the play area and one for the skybox. The map doesn’t really need any zoning, but it should have been anyways – just for those people running UT2K4 on Grandma’s PC.The ambient sounds were nicely placed and had good radii. Perhaps a few more dotted around to fill in the aural gaps could have been used but otherwise they were quite pleasing.The build is really well done and merits a score closer to 3.0 but it’s not perfect so I have to give it the next one down.

CAST 2.0

The bots play this one well. Combat is not restrained to any one place and they’ll travel the map in search of someone to battle. The weapons and health/adrenaline pickups are scattered well and are neither too far away nor too plentiful - an excellent balance there. As for the Damage Amp, it’s located in a central place that’s a little challenging to get to and is out in the open. Nicely placed.As for the flow, it’s a little off. There are basically two planes of combat with a larger ‘upper’ area which is the main floor, and two lower areas. The lower areas offer no incentive to explore other than a minor shield, two weapons, and some ammo and health, so you’ll be spending most of your time on the upper floor. On the upper floor, the layout is pretty much flat so you’ll be spending most of your time fighting on the same plane or lobbing your fire onto the head of the poor bot who’s in a lower area. This means there’s not a lot of gameplay variety.More height variations and an extended lower area would have really helped the gameplay in this map. As it is, most of the combat is on one plane and the rest of it is like throwing dynamite in a lake.

Descended from DM-Aristocracy, this map is like a naughty prince. It’s reminiscent of the parent, but there are clear disappointments. A little more lighting variation, gameplay/height/layout variation, and some better attention to texture detail would have made this a contender. It’s a fun map and worthy of a download, but it doesn’t have the majesty it aims for.

Not all mappers know how to make custom textures & staticmeshes... OK, DM-Aristocracy2004 looks much better, but this one is not bad at all. And the author gave credit to TAZ & asked him permission for the meshes... nice.I played it a little time ago. IMO has different visuals, but similar game style to the other new map by this author (DM-Recrem Kram): It's a good DM map, the playercount is high & I think it is better with less bots. I miss some more jumps & tricks.

The lighting is bland. Too hazily yellow for my tastes. Flow suffers in some of the weapon aquisition points. The terrain is bleh. The porches are just not working for me. The meshes are misaligned in some places. This is more appearant in the upper portion of the level. The roofs and crap. The gameplay itself is very...shopping mall feeling. Two levels, some Z. It entirely too flat.On the positive side, this level does make use of the excellent R3 static mesh pack used in Aristocracy and the gameplay is...better than some.I rate this at above average.

i liked that map.the layout is kinda nice on the whole, though there are some places that are a bit too open imo.i think the lighting could use a little work because at some places it is way too colorful and intense for example some of the pink lights (which don't really mach the theme btw).it's definitely an improvement from your other maps i've played (though shanghai is still your best) - looking forward to a new one ;)